The forming rolls on a roll forming machine are arranged in pairs with each pair being supported on spindles or tooling arbors which in turn are supported at their ends by vertical stands. Initially the vertical stands were separate parts which were each releasably attached to a machine base. However, each time the tooling was changed there was required a total disassembly and reassembly of the vertical stands, their contained spindles and the forming rolls on those spindles. This was very time consuming and particularly the precise alignment of all of the re-assembled stands.
Designers then combined the two vertical stands in an integral u-shaped structure, next they provide a plurality of stands on a horizontal raft plate which allowed the total raft to be removed intact without any disassembly. The raft assembly now involved a u-shaped structure which supported the forming rolls and spindles which did not require disassembly each time they were removed from the roll forming line. The current prior art raft design includes three separate pieces, two vertical stands joined by a horizontal raft plate to which they are both bolted.